The Crow

Earlier this week we learned that Relativity Media declared bankruptcy, as the studio reportedly owes on several past projects and is unable to pay up. That puts the future of many of their projects — completed and not — in question, including the repeatedly delayed Jane Got a Gun, as well as the reboot of The Crow. Both movies appear to be cursed.

Over the last several years, Relativity Media has produced and released some of Hollywood’s more adventurous genre films, including Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire, the Bradley Cooper brain-drug thriller Limitless, and the music melodrama Beyond the Lights. But they’ve yet to make an out-and-out blockbuster; per Box Office Mojo none of their 34 releases have ever broken $100 million in domestic grosses (2011’s Immortals came closest, with $83.5 million in the U.S.) and some of their flops have been extreme, like Machine Gun Preacher with Gerard Butler, which cost a reported $30 million and made less than $1 million domestically. Amidst mounting disappointments (and millions of dollars in unpaid loans) Relativity filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier today, and will sell its film and television operations at auction.

The upcoming reboot/remake/whatever of The Crow has had a pretty hard time getting off the ground. Luke Evans was originally supposed to star in the new version, set to be directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later), but both Evans and Fresnadillo exited the project. The reigns were then handed to director Corin Hardy, with Boardwalk Empire star Jack Huston attached to star. But now Huston has also departed the project, leaving the role of the goth hero vacant once again.

Whereas the Star Wars: The Force Awakens cast was revealed with one big announcement, the actors joining director Gareth Edwards’ Star Wars: Rogue One have been very slowly making their way public. So far we know that Felicity Jones, Ben Mendelsohn, Diego Luna, Sam Claflin, and Riz Ahmed are set to star in the film, and today comes word that Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker has joined the Star Wars spinoff in an “unspecified” role.

A remake/reboot of The Crow seemed like a fairly lame idea, but after years of director changes and actor switches, we finally seem to have something interesting on our hands: with a director personally recommended by Edgar Wright, as well as Boardwalk Empire star Jack Huston in the title role, The Crow sounds like it could be, I don’t know, kind of cool? Add another item to the pros column: Andrea Riseborough has been cast as the main villain — a role originally intended for a man.

The comic book movie craze may have exploded in recent years, but there have been movies and TV shows based on our favorite comics for decades. For all the action we see on screen, however, we hardly...

The most recent report regarding the upcoming reboot of The Crow suggested that Jack Huston was close to signing on for the role of the iconic goth hero. Today brings official confirmation of Huston’s casting from original Crow creator James O’Barr, who also revealed that Winter’s Tale and Downton Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay will play the role of the hero’s murdered fiancee.

The Crow reboot has been in development for years, only recently picking up steam with the hire of Corin Hardy, the director who made his feature debut on The Hallow, which just premiered at Sundance. After struggling to retain a director for some time, Dracula Untold star Luke Evans departed the project, and the search for a new leading man began. Word has it that Relativity Studios has their sights set on Boardwalk Empire star Jack Huston, and they could totally do a lot worse.

It wasn’t that long ago that we heard about the possibility of Luke Evans departing the long-gestating reboot of ‘The Crow,’ which seemed like odd timing, given that the project had just attracted a new (and Edgar Wright-approved!) director. But this weekend makes the news more official, as the ‘Dracula Untold’ star has decided to move on from the project, leaving the iconic role open once again.

Given the franchise’s tragic history (including original star Brandon Lee’s on-set death during the film of the original film), you have to wonder if ‘The Crow’ is cursed. Just hours after the reboot of the franchise lost yet another director (J. Javier Gutierrez, following in the footsteps of Juan Carlos Fresnadillo) and gained another (Corin Hardy) comes word that the new star of the franchise, Luke Evans might be taking his leave of the supernatural, super goth-y superhero franchise as well.